‘Arrested Development’ Season 5 is officially a go at Netflix

“In talks with Netflix we all felt that that stories about a narcissistic, erratically behaving family in the building business — and their desperate abuses of power — are really underrepresented on TV these days,” said creator Mitch Hurwitz in a statement. “I am so grateful to them and to 20th TV for making this dream of mine come true in bringing the Bluths, George Sr., Lucille and the kids; Michael, Ivanka, Don Jr., Eric, George-Michael, and who am I forgetting, oh Tiffany. Did I say Tiffany? — back to the glorious stream of life.”

Despite the Trump allusions, you can rest assured that the entire regular cast will return: Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, Portia de Rossi, David Cross and Alia Shawkat are all on board.

This is theoretically good news, since the first three seasons of the underrated comedy remain some of the best TV we’ve ever laid eyes on, but Netflix’s Season 4 revival — because of the conflicting schedules of its sprawling ensemble cast — often felt like a patchwork quilt of good ideas and slightly threadbare execution.

The show went to great lengths to keep all its narrative plates spinning even when the actors weren’t able to share the screen very often, but since the best part of Arrested Development has always been the banter of the many narcissistic members of the Bluth family, we’re hoping Season 5 will actually get them all into the same room more than once.

Thankfully, a statement from Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos seems to imply that the producers have taken those criticisms on board:

“Arrested Development brings us structures, outerwear and choreography like no other comedy in history,” said Sarandos. “Season 4 marked the first foray by Netflix into original comedy programming and this time, the Bluths will collectively be spending more quality time with their millions of fans around the world.”